Bel and I arrived in Yamba mid afternoon. Just as we started to set up the rain started to fall. It also stopped as soon as we had finished. It’s our first wet setup of the trip, so really can’t complain.
The campsite is right on the Clarence River, so after dinner we went for a walk to see if any prawns were running but didn’t see any.
The next morning we went for a bike ride to explore town. A nice flat ride into town, but it did get a bit hilly when we headed over to the beaches. Yamba is a very pretty fishing/holiday town. The river provides great fishing while there are good beaches for swimming and surfing.
There’s a huge break wall on the ocean entry to the river which also offers a lot of protection. We rode to the end of this before looping back home along the foreshore.
Back at camp we had lunch and then cooled off in the pool. The caravan park is like a resort, with 2 pool areas and even has a pool bar!
It also has a very large pet Goanna that does a lap of the park each afternoon.
In the afternoon we headed out to Angourie National Park. It’s about 5km south of Yamba and has Australia’s first surfing reserve, and a famous surf break that’s been used in a couple of movies (according to a local surfer keen to tell me).
It also has two beautiful, naturally formed swimming pools. The Green pool is fresh water, while the Blue pool is an ocean pool.
On the way home we dropped in to the Pacific Hotel for a beer – spectacular views.
That evening we had a big storm come through, it’s getting very tropical! We battoned down the hatches and managed to stay dry.
On our last day we decided to catch the ferry across to Iluka with the bikes.
Yamba/Iluka is a bit like Foster/Tuncurry without the bridge! Iluka is on the north side of the river and is a very sleepy little town – definitely seems to be the poorer cousin of the two. It has an equally grand break wall so we rode this as far as we could and then did a lap of town before heading back to Yamba.
While Iluka didn’t have a lot to see, the ferry ride was a great way to see more of the river and we also got to see some dolphins.
Back in Yamba we rode back via the fish coop and had some fresh Yamba prawns for lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the pool.